The truth about Bulgaria

UC-NRLF

cicr

SB 57

GIFT OF

THE TRUTH

ABOUT

BULGARIA

BY A. T. CHRISTOFF

Is true Freedom but to break
Fetters for our own dear sake,
And, with leathern hearts, forget
That we owe mankind a debt?
No! True Freedom is to share
All the chains our brothers wear,
Arid, with heart and hand to be
Earnest to make others free!

— James Russell Lowell

HENRY CHRISTO CHRISTOFF

(Candidate-Officer)

34th Training Battery, Camp Taylor, Ky.

Born Bansko, Macedonia, July 10, 1896.

Lost his life by an accident while performing his duty at

Camp Taylor, Ky., Dec. 8, 1918.

THE TRUTH

ABOUT

BULGARIA

0£_C

IN MEMORY

OF
OUR SON, HENRY CHRISTO CHRISTOFF

AND

ALL YOUNG MEN OF EVERY NATION WHO MADE

THE SUPREME SACRIFICE IN THE CAUSE OF

LIBERTY AND DEMOCRACY

I/

FOREWORD.

Many thousands of our boys made the su-
preme sacrifice. Millions more were ready to do
the same. These boys were idealists. They sacri-
ficed themselves for democracy, so that freedom,
justice and peace might reign upon the earth.
That no people should be left under the oppres-
sion of other people, simply because they lack the
brute power to resist such oppression. Will not
the blood of our noble sons cry out against us
if we leave the unfortunate Macedonians under a
yoke incomparably worse than that of the Turk?

If the reading of this pamphlet does not bring
the conviction that the great bulk of the Mace-
donian population is Bulgar, and therefore
should be allowed to unite with their brothers of
Free Bulgaria; will not the brief recital of cruel
oppression practiced upon them by Greece and
Servia arouse our holy indignation and make us
insist before the Governments of America, France
and England that Macedonia be created into a free
and independent country, where the people can
exercise their God-given right to mould their own
destinies ?

The writer has been a witness and a partici-
pant in most of the events referred to in this
booklet and could write his story without quoting
anybody. However, not wishing to be criticized
as partial to the country of his birth, he con-
sidered it prudent to quote authorities whom no-
body can accuse of partiality. "Bulgaria and Her
People," by Prof. W. S. Monroe, Page Co., Boston;
and "Report of the International Commission to
Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Bal-
kan Wars," Carnegie Endowment for Internation-
al Peace, Washington, D. C., have been freely
quoted. These books are the result of the most
painstaking investigations of men who have a
world reputation for intelligence, impartiality and
integrity of character, representing all the Great
Powers of Europe and the United States.

Kansas City, Kansas A. T. CHRISTOFF.

The Truth About Bulgaria.

WHO ARE THE BULGARIANS?

"The Bulgarians, a Turanian race, akin to the
Tatars, Huns, Petchenegs and Finns, made their ap-
pearance on the banks of the Pruth in the latter part
of the Seventh century. They were a horde of wild
horsemen, fierce and barbarous, practicing polygamy,
and governed despotically by their Khans (chiefs)
and Boyars or Bolyars (nobles). Their original abode
was the tract between the Ural mountains and the
Volga, where the Kingdom of Great (or Black) Bol-
gary existed down to the Thirteenth century. In 679,
under their Khan Asparukh (or Isperikh), they
crossed the Danube, and, after subjugating the Sla-
vonic population of Moesia, advanced to the gates of
Constantinople and Salonica. " * * The invading
horde was not numerous, and during the next two
centuries it became gradually merged in the Slavonic
population. Like the Franks in Gaul the Bulgars gave
their name and a political organization to the more
civilized race which they conquered, but adopted its
language, customs and local institutions, not a trace
of the Ugrian or Finnish element is to be found in the
Bulgarian speech. The complete assimilation of a
conquering race may be illustrated by many parallels.i
The Bulgarians, therefore, are that portion of the Sla-
vonic race, which is found till the present time in Moe-
sia,, Thrace and Macedonia.

The Christian religion was officially adopted in
Bulgaria in 964, through Bysantia. "Morally, Bul-
garia was slowly but surely undermined by its inter-
course with the Bysantine empire. The nobles and
the priesthood were most affected by this sinister
influence, and it is noticeable that in the old as in the
new Bulgaria the ablest men have usually sprung
from the virgin soil of the peasantry." 2

The Bulgarians have a very interesting history
before their subjugation by the Turks, but its recital
is of no importance for our present discussion.

1 — Encyclopaedia Britanica, llth JSdition, Vol. IV, p. 779.

FIVE CENTURIES OF A DOUBLE YOKE.

In 1398 the subjugation of Bulgaria by the Turks
was completed. The live centuries that separate tne
fall 01 Bulgaria and her lioeration in 1878 are justly
considered as tne dark ages 01 Bulgarian history. "For
live hundred years the Bulgars bore the double yoke
of Turkish political oppression and Greek ecclesias-
tical tyranny." 3

Tne Turks laid waste the country. Butchered
the llower of the nation, borne of tne nobles em-
braced Mohammedanism to escape death. The choic-
est land was confiscated and given to tne Turkish no-
bles. The Bulgarians were practically made serfs. The
linest looking boys were taken to Constantinople to
replenish the ranks of the janissaries. These became
the scourge of their own people. The fairest maidens
were carried away to the harems to satisiy the lusts
of the Turkish nobles. The country was ilooded by
Moslem desperadoes, who exacted the most appetizing
dinners from the Bulgarian population, and departing
demanded the host to pay them money lor the wear and
tear of their teeth. All kinds of taxes were collected. Tne
farmer was obliged toi pay a tax for every goat,
sheep, pig, cow, steer, horse, hive of bees, land tax
(emlyak), and then the tenth part of the produce of
the land (ushur), income tax (tedjaret), road tax,
and a tax (from cradle to the grave) for exemption
from military service (bedel). Highways were in a
deplorable condition; and on account of brigands,
travelling was extremely dangerous. Even in his own
county a man had to have a sort of passport (teskere).
Bribery was brought to perfection. The Christian
Bulgarian had no human rights. His testimony in
court, if contradicted by a Moslem, was not valid. The
Christian must stand when a Turk passes by. Per-
forming labor for the government, as building roads,
transporting military material, moving officials from
one city to another, and similar services, without pay
(angare) was very common. Bands of brigands car-
ried away flocks and herds. The Christians were not

2, 3— Bulgaria and Her People, Will S. Monroe, p.p. 25, 26.

allowed to carry firearms. The churches, built only
by special tirman from the Sultan, were low, very oi-
ten mere basements, and walled around so as not to
De seen from tne street. No bells were allowed to can
tne faithiul to worship.

".But the political and economic bondage of the
Turks was scarcely less irksome tnan tne religious and
intellectual bondage of the Greeks. The entire spirit-
ual government 01 the Bulgars was turned over to the
ureeK Phanariotes of Constantinople, for handsome
unancial consideration, of course! Less than a year
alter the fall of Tirnovo the venerable Patriarch Juum-
enius was expelled and the Bulgarian See was subor-
dinated to tne Patriarch of Constantinople. Greek
bishops displaced Bulgarian bishops. Bibles in the
Slavonic tongue were replaced by the Scriptures in
Greek. All offices within the church were for sale,
and we hear of Greek barbers and restaurant keepers
holding posts as bishops; and the ecclesiastical rulers
from Constantinople, like the political, having paid
dearly for their offices, had to recoup themselves at
the expense of their parishioners. 'The art of extor-
tion among Greek bishops and priests/ wrote a con-
temporary German traveller in Bulgaria 'has been
reduced to a system, so that between Greek ecclesias-
tics and. Turkish governors the lot of the Bulgarian
peasant is a hard one.' The Greek liturgy replaced
the Slavonic throughout the country, and all Bulga-
rian books and manuscripts were committed to the
flames. So late as the year 1823 the metropolitan
Greek Phanariot Hilarion, in repairing the cathedral
at Tirnovo, discovered a closed chamber that contained
numerous relics and the ancient libraries of the Bul-
garian patriarchs, including the library of Eumenius.
The relics he sold in Rumania, and the Bulgarian
books and manuscripts he solemnly committed to the
flames. 4 Schools such as existed in the country,
were conducted by Greek priests; the Greek alphabet
and Greek books were used, and the Kyrillik alphabet
of the Bulgarians was entirely forgotten. 'The Greek

4 — Histoire de la Bulgaria. By R. P. Guerin Songeon. Paris,
1913, p. 480.

—7—

clergy ended what the Turks began/ remarks William
Miller, and he adds, 'but the spiritual tyranny of the
Phanariotes was even worse than the political tyran-
ny of the Turks. For. the Turks were not bigots, the
Phanariotes were/ " 5

"The Phanariot Hierarchy, ignorant of the lan-
guage and the customs of the people, not caring for
their needs and moreover, dispising them, plundered
the Bulgarians in every way, and to deprive them
even of the consciousness of their condition, according
to the spirit of the Turkish government — kept the
people in ignorance, destroyed everything that re-
minded them of their nationality, annihilated the Sla-
vic church services, introducing the unintelligible
Greek liturgy. * : Was destroying Slavic books
and manuscripts. * * The rapacity of the Phana-
riotes knew no limit; the slavery and the ignorance oi'
the people were complete.

«# * * If anyone succeeded to attain to a more
human city life, he ceased to be a Bulgarian and be-
came a Greek, for the Bulgarian was not worthy to
live a city life; this was permitted only to the Greek.
The Bulgarian ought to remain a peasant, born for
heavy labor. * * *

"Truly, the Patriarchate of Ohrid was still exist-
ing, which could, if it wished, become for the Bulga-
rians a moral center and support, but in the XVIII
century it was only in name Bulgarian, but in fact
its Hierarchs since long ago were Greeks. At last, the
Phanariotes did not wish to leave even this doubtful
reminder of Bulgarian antiquity and in 1767 the inde-
pendent church or Ohrid was destroyed.

" * * * The Bulgarians did not exist as a na-
tion. They were only a crowd of oppressed, tortured
and destroyed people. The very word narode (a na-
tion) was lost, and substituted by the word "bora,"
taken from the Greek and meaning villagers, predes-
tined to all kinds of heavy labor. * * *" 6

«* * * The Phanariot clergy — unscrupulous, ra-

5— Bulgaria and Her People. Will S. Monroe, p.p. 27-29.
6 — History of Slavic Literature, by Pipin and Spasovich, (In
Russian).

pacious and corrupt — succeeded in monopolizing the
higher ecclesiastical appointments and filled the par-
ishes with Greek priests, whose schools, in which
Greek was exclusively taught, were the only means of
instruction open to the population. By degrees Greek
became the language ol the upper classes in all the
Bulgarian towns, the Bulgarian language was written
in Greek characters, and the illiterate peasants,
though speaking the vernacular, called themselves
Greeks." 7

"So completely did the identity of the Bulgarian
nation seem lost that foreign travelers in the region
spoke of them as a kind of Greeks, and down to
the Crimean war any Bulgar lucky enough to claim
wealth and education was likely to describe himself
as a Greek." 8

"The Hellenization of Bulgaria was never quite
complete, although the Slavic language was no longer
taught, it continued to be spoken by the peasants. Mr.
Brailsford, in his authoritative work on the Races of
Macedonia, attributes this persistance of the Bulga-
rian language to the failure of the Greeks to make
any sort of provision for the education of Bulgarian
women. He writes concerning the growth of Greek
influence after the advent of the Turks in Bulgaria:
'It depended almost entirely upon the church, and it
must have been immeasureably stronger in the Balkan
peninsula after the coming of the Turks than ever
before. It embraced not only Macedonia, but Ruma-
nia, Bulgaria, and even Servia as well. The few Slavs
in the interior who were educated at all were taught
to regard themselves as Greeks, and the very tradi-
tion of their origin was in danger of dying out. Two
fatal errors alone wrecked what was nothing less than
a scheme for the Hellenizing of the Balkan peninsula.
The women were not educated; and for all the Greek
schools might do, every Slav child learned his own
despised tongue at his mother's knee. The peasants
were also neglected. The Greeks regarded them with

7— Encyclopaedia Britanica, llth Edition, Vol. IV, p. 781.
8— The Roots of the War, by Wm. Stearns Davis. The Century
Co., p. 72.

—9—

unmeasured and stupid contempt which a quick town-
bred people instinctively feels for a race of cultiva-
tors. They were barbarians, beasts of burden, men
only 'in the catalogue/ The Greeks denied the rights
of men to the Slav peasants and refused to accept
them as brethren. The consequence was that the
peasants never quite lost their sense of separation,
and a certain dim consciousness of nationality re-
mained, rooted in injuries and hatred. The nemesis
came at the beginning of the nineteenth century.'^

THE AWAKENING.

The annihilation of the Bulgarian nationality
seemed to be complete. The town Bulgarians consid-
ered it an insult to be called Bulgarians. In the peas-
ant parlance, the word Greek and townsman were
synonymous; also the words Grkinia (Greek lady) and
Kokona (lady) were synonymous with townswoman.
The Bulgarian Gospodin Ivan (Mr. Ivan) was changed
to Kyr ^anaki, Gospodja Maria (Mrs. Maria )to Ko-
kona Mariola, etc. Vurgaros Hondrokephalos (block-
headed Bulgarian) was a very common saying in those
times. Of the nearly five million Bulgarians in the world
in those dark days, the number of men who could read
and write the Bulgarian language and were not
ashamed of their nationality was very small.

In the Eastermost of the three fingers of the Chal-
cidian peninsula, only a few miles southeast of Sa-
lonica, each of the three Slavic nations, belonging to
the Eastern Orthodox church, had and still has a mon-
astery— Zograph (Bulgarian), Hillendar (Servian)
and Panteleymon (Russian). In the middle of the
XVIII century a Bulgarian from the diocese of Sam-
okov was the Abbot of the Servian monastery. His
brother Paissy was the assistant Abbot. The Greek
and Servian monchs insulted constantly Father
Paissy, who was not ashamed of his nationality, that
the Bulgarians had no history. According to his own
testimony his heart was "consuming itself with zeal
and sorrow" for his nation. He travelled extensively
and labored hard to collect material for his history.

9— Bulgaria and Her People, by Will S. Monroe, p.p. 29, 30.

—10—

One happy day in 1762 he penned the words "Konets i
Bogu Slava." (Finis, Glory to God). The Bulgarian
people now had a history. His book was entitled,
"History of the Bulgarian People with Accounts of
Their Tsars and Saints." In the introduction, among
other things, Father Paissy says: "I saw many Bul-
garians who go after a strange language and strange
customs and ridicule their own tongue. For this rea-
son I wrote here, for those scoffers of their own
fathers, who do not love their own nationality and lan-
guage, I wrote that they may know. * *• * They turn
to strange politics, and care not for the Bulgarian
tongue, but learn to read and speak Greek, and are
ashamed to call themselves Bulgarians. * * * 0
thou unwise and foolish one, why art thou ashamed
to call thyself a Bulgarian, and readest not thine own
tongue, and speakest it not. Have not the Bulgarians
had a kingdom and a commonwealth? But thou sayest
the Greeks are wiser and more political, for that rea-
son, thou sayest, it is better to side with the Greeks.
But see, foolish one, there are many nations wiser and
more glorious than the Greeks, has any Greek left his
tongue and learning, and nationality, as thou, foolish
one, who leavest thine, and hast no benefit from the
Greek wisdom and politics. Thou Bulgarian, be not
deceived, know thy nation and tongue, and learn thine
own tongue; better is the Bulgarian simplicity and in-
nocence." Then he continues to prove that the Greeks
are cunning, proud speculators, and intriguers — their
superiority to the Bulgarians consists in these; but
they have no family or civic virtues. Their mind
thinks of unjust rapacity, and contempt of the simple
Bulgarians. True, the Bulgarians are now only la-
borers and shepherds, but it is Greek treachery that
brought them to this, argues Father Paissy.

This book was copied secretly throughout the
country — from Hillendar to the Danube, and from
the shores of the Black Sea to the Albanian mountains.
The Bulgarian nation became a nation again. Bulga-
ria had a history.

THE WAR OF LIBERATION.

The spark struck by Father Paissy in a few years
—ll—

developed into a full conflagration. The Bulgarian
nationality was not dead. It was only asleep. Schools
were springing up over Moesia, Thrace and Macedonia.
The Phanariotes saw their hopes of Hellenizing the
Balkan peninsula, the bulk of whose people were Bul-
garians, threatened with failure. They turned loose
all their low passions against the school masters. They
assassinated many of them, others were accused before
the Turkish government as enemies of the state and
cast in jail, where dampness, stench, vermin and tor-
ture ended their lives as martyrs for the national
cause. Even, as in the case of Milladinoff Brothers of
Struga, when the Turkish government prevailed upon
by European diplomats, would have set them free,
the Greek Hierarchy, bribing the Turkish jailers, sent
them poison, and they were found dead in their
cells the morning they were to be released. But the
bitter cup of suffering for the national heroes did not
stop the movement. When one dropped the fight, ten
were ready to resume it.

The national leaders saw that the Greek Hierar-
chy was the deadly enemy of the Bulgarian nation-
ality. As long as they submitted to the spiritual au-
thority of the Greek Patriarch at Constantinople he
claimed before the world that they were Greeks. A
spiritual war was started for an independent Bulga-
rian church. The people of Macedonia took a most ac-
tive part in this fight against Hellenism. The Phana-
riotes used their long-tried methods of intrigue and
calumny against the Bulgarian leaders. The Turkish
prisons were actually full of the flower of the Bulga-
rian people. Russia and other powers were begged to
help induce the Sultan to recognize the independence
of the Bulgarian church. They turned a deaf ear. Then
a delegation was sent to Rome to negotiate with the
Pope a union of the Bulgarian church with Rome.
Kukush and Todorak, only a few miles north of Salo-
nica, turned Roman Catholic. Other towns followed
their example. Russia was scared that the Eastern
Orthodox Church of the Balkans will perish. The
tsar brought pressure to bear upon the Sultan. On
Feb. 28, 1870, the latter issued a firman "establish-
ing the Bulgarian exarchate, with jurisdiction over

—12—

fifteen dioceses, including Nish, Pirot and Veles, the
other dioceses in dispute to be added to these in case
two-thirds of the Christian population so desired." 10
The Greek Patriarch pronounced his "Anathema"
against the new church and excommunicated its mem-
bership from the Holy Universal Eastern Orthodox
Churcn. Community after community added them-
selves to their national church. Macedonia was not
behind Thrace and Moesia in this great Bulgarian na-
tional movement. The Greek clergy, in their desper-
ate struggle to hold the people from joining tneir
national cnurch, among other low means, went so far
as to deny the Omniscience of God, by telling the igno-
rant people that Almighty God did not know the Bul-
garian language, that His linguistic ability did not go
beyond Hebrew, Greek and Latin, in which tongues
was written the accusation of Jesus on the Cross.
The Bulgarian people had only five years in which to
undo, to a great extent, the results of the most infa-
mous Greek propaganda of five centuries.

When some of the national leaders were fighting
this war against the Phanariotes, others were can-
vassing the country as Apostles of Freedom, preach-
ing the Gospel of armed revolt against the Turkish
misrule. In this movement also Macedonia took a
very active part. Small outbreaks here and there ex-
cited the Turks to atrocities, the equal of which has
not been recorded in history. European diplomacy
failing to convince the Sultan of the wisdom of intro-
ducing reforms, the tsar was given a free hand. On
April 24, 1877, Russia declared war on Turkey. The
campaign was over in less than a year. Bulgaria
emerged a free nation from five centuries of the most
terrible political and spiritual bondage in the history
of the human race.

THE TREATIES OF SAN STEFANO AND| BERLIN.

"The victorious advance of the Russian army to
Constantinople was followed by the treaty of San Ste-
fano (March 3rd, 1878), which realized almost to the
full the national aspirations of the Bulgarian race. All

10— Encyclopaedia Britanica, llth Edition, Vol. IV, p. 781.

—13—

the provinces of European Turkey in which the Bul-
garian element predominated were now included in an
autonomous principality, which extended from the
Black Sea to the Albanian Mountains, and from the
Danube to the JSgean, enclosing Ochrida, the ancient
capital of the Shishman's, Dibra and Kastoria, as well
as the districts of Vranya and Pirot, and possessing a
Mediterranean port at Kavala. The Dobruja, notwith-
standing its Bulgarian population, was not included in
the new state, being reserved as compensation to Rou-
mania for the Russian annexation of Bessarabia;
Adrianople, Salonica and the Chalcidian peninsula
were left to Turkey. The area thus delimited consti-
tuted three-fifths of the Balkan Peninsula, with a pop-
ulation of 4,000,000 inhabitants. The great powers,
however, anticipating that this extensive territory
would become a Russian dependency, intervened; and
on the 13th of July of the same year was signed the
treaty of Berlin, which in effect divided the 'Big Bul-
garia' of the treaty of San Stefano into three por-
tions. The limits of the principality of Bulgaria as
then defined, and the autonomous province of Eastern
Rumelia, have been already descrioed; n the remain-
ing portions, including almost the whole of Macedonia,
and part of the Vilayet of Adrianople, was left under
Turkish administration. * Vranya, Pirot and

Nish were given to Servia, and the transference of
Dobruja to Roumania was sanctioned. This artificial
division of the Bulgarian nation could scarcely be re-
garded as possessing elements of permanence." 12

The English prime minister Beaconsfield looked
on the provisions of the treaty of San Stefano "as
insuring a dangerous Russian preponderance in the
Balkan peninsula. He vigorously insisted that the
whole treaty should be revised by a general European
congress. For a time war between Russia and Eng-
land seemed impending; and Austria was also discon-
tented. The Congress finally met at Berlin in the
summer, and succeeded in making a treaty which was
accepted. * * * i

• i VI

11— Encyclopaedia Britanica, llth Edition, Vol. IV, p. 772.
12— Encyclopaedia Britanica, llth Edition, Vol. IV, p. 782,

—14—

B0ROERS OF TURKEY BEFORF RUSSO-TURKISH V/AR
BORDERS or BULGARIA , TREATY or S/»N STEFA NO

RETURNED TO TURKEY .TREATY OF BERLIN

Hf|!|l!||||lllll CEDED TO SERVIA . TREATY " BERLIN
Wg&Z% AUTONOMOUS PROVINCE . TREATY or BERLIN.

1. The Bulgaria of San Stefano was far from including all the Bulgarian
people. The white region toward Constantinople is rurally solidly Bulgar, and
also the great bulk of its urban population. Dobrudja is almost 100% Bulgar.
The same is true for many miles beyond the rest of its borders.

—15—

"English jealousy of Russia thus severed Bulga-
ria, which was one of race and sympathy, and at the
same time left under Turkish yoke the Christians of
Macedonia. The latter provision was simply a calam-
ity for the unfortunate Macedonians." 13

"But the readjustments were made very unskill-
fully, with far greater care on the part of the oppon-
ents of Russia to prevent the wide expansion of her
power than to make any redistribution of the Balkan
lands that would meet the reasonable demands of na-
tional hopes and international justice." 14

"Nobody left Berlin really satisfied, save Bea-
consfield, and he was to die in 1881 — too soon to re-
alize the imperfection of his vaunted achievement."^

"English responsibility in these new complica-
tions and difficulties has been set forth by the Duke
of Argyle: 'We, therefore, need not linger over the
blow struck at the idea of a federation of the Balkan
nationalities when Bulgaria — one and indivisible — ac-
cording to the treaty of San Stefano, — was divided
into three by the treaty of Berlin. The whole course
of succeeding events was the result of this grave error.
The most recent events lie there in germ/

"The reunion of free Bulgaria of the still vassal
Oriental Rumelia, and as the immediate consequence
thereof, the Serbo-Bulgarian war of 1885, the grow-
ing rivalry between the nationalities in a still subject
Macedonia, the new propaganda of the secondary na-
tionalities, the isolation of Greece in its 1897 attempt,
the fetishism of the status quo mitigated and corrected
as it was by the intrigues of the powers, the miscar-
riage of the hypocritical plan of reforms in Macedonia
in 1907-1908, the intermezzo of the Turkish revolution
with its failure to solve an insoluble problem, then the
greatness and decline of the Balkan "Alliance" — all
were the natural results of the mistake of Berlin, — a
mistake which now everybody sees without the power
to correct." 16

13— Europe in the XIX Century, by H. P. Judson, p.p. 274-275.
14, 15— The Roots of the War, by Wm. S. Davis, and others, p.p

93,97.
16 — Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the

Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars. p. 40.
—16—

WHY BULGARIA JOINED THE CENTRAL
POWERS?

The writer realizes that in trying to answer this
question he is encountered by a strong prejudice
against Bulgaria, because the powers she joined made
themselves obnoxious to the world by their aims and
their methods in the world war. Dr. Lyman Abbot,
the venerable editor of the Outlook, in a letter to a
friend of mine, who has been a missionary in the
Balkans for nearly thirty years, states: "My sym-
pathy would naturally have been with Bulgaria be-
cause my wife's uncle, Dr. Cyrus Hamlin, was the
lirst president and practically the founder of Robert
College in Constantinople, and through him I have
had personal acquaintance with Bulgaria, and the
character of her civilization and its people, but when
Bulgaria joined the band of brigands who have been
devastating iiiurope, and joinea tnem oecause she
could get better terms irom them than from the Allies,
joined them because theirs was, to use your own
phrase 'the side that showed her triendsnip' she neces-
sarily alienated all those who believed in justice and
liberty, and became tainted with the evil repute
brought upon the Central Powers by the lawless crim-
inality of Germany in Belgium and France/' The
editor of "The Worlds Work/' in a note on "The Old
Bulgaria and the New," says: "The last nation to
join the Central Powers in their onslaught on the lib-
erties of mankind was Bulgaria. Bulgaria's adhesion
to the Germanic cause was one of the most shameful
episodes in modern history. It is doubtful, indeed, if
all history contains any proceeding more cynical and
more base. The story of the Bulgarian nation sup-
plied the reason for assuming that Bulgaria's sym-
pathies would inevitably go with the Entente. * * *
in all probability the sympathies of the Bulgarian
masses, like the sympathies of the Greek electorate,
were with the Entente." 17 General Smuts, in his
message to South Wales, classes Bulgaria with Ger-

17— The World's Work, November, 1918, p. 12.

—17—

many, Austria, Turkey and the Devil. IS In talking
with many intelligent American frienls the writer
finds that the above quoted sentiments are quite gen-
eral in America, and, perhaps, more so in the British
Empire. "Our sympathies," they say, "were with
Bulgaria during the Balkan wars. We knew she was
held up by her false allies, but when she joined Ger-
many she made a great mistake."

Far be it from the writer to try to advocate the
justice of Germany's and Austria's cause. We all know
what they wanted, and what they did. But he asks
the reader to suppress his feelings, and use only his
reasoning power, in considering the influences that
pushed Bulgaria towards the Central Powers.

What follows are the writer's own observations.
He is not posing as an interpreter or a spokesman of
official Bulgaria. He is writing as an American citi-
zen, whose native country happened to be Bulgaria,
and perhaps has studied events in connection with
that country, with a greater interest than a native-
born citizen.

Look at the map where Bulgaria of San Stefano
is shown. Look again at the same map how that Bul-
garia was unmercifully cut to pieces by the treaty of
Berlin. Why was Bulgaria cut up like that? Why was
Dobruja given to Rumania? Was it because the in-
habitants of Dobruja were not Bulgarians ? No. The
author of the article in Encyclopaedia Britanica gives
us the bare facts. "The Dobruja, notwithstanding its
Bulgarian population, was not included in the new
state, being reserved as compensation to Rumania for
the Russian annexation of Bessarabia." Why were
the districts of Pirot, Nish, Leskovac and Vranya given
to Servia? Was it because the population was Serv-
ian? No. It was simply because Be^consfield imag-
ined that a Great Bulgaria, so near Constantinople,
would become a Russian dependency and thus greatly
endanger British interests in the Near East. Why
was Macedonia and the largest portion of Thrace left
to the Turk? Was it because there was any doubt as
to the character of the population? No. But because

18 — A speech delivered at Tonapandy, Rhonda, on Oct. 29, 1917,

—18—

a Great Bulgaria was not in the interests of England
and Austria. Why was Eastern Rumelia created?
Surely not because the diplomats at Berlin had any
doubt as to the kind of people who lived there, but
simply to mutilate the body of Bulgaria, and make
her harmless in their future plans. "A brief consid-
eration of these provisions will show that they were
not dictated by any sincere desire to arrive at a last-
ing and satisfactory settlement of the Balkan trou-
bles. Each nation in the congress was intent upon
securing for itself every possible advantage, irrespec-
tive oi the rights, wishes, or welfare of the Balkan
people. Great Britain, Russia, and Austria-Hungary
were all equally at fault. Great Britain, in fact, nine
days before the congress met, concluded a treaty with
Turkey whereby, in return for the permission to oc-
cupy the Turkish island of Cyprus she pledged herself
to maintain, by the use of force, if necessary, the in-
tegrity of the Sultan's remaining possessions in Asia.
Furthermore, Great Britain was a party to the crime
of thrusting the Macedonian Christians back under
the Turkish yoke, because she believed her own inter-
ests demanded a Turkey at the Dardanelles strong
enough to repulse the encroachments of Russia. Aus-
tria-Hungary's motives in occupying Bosnya and Her-
zegovina were wholly selfish. H ; * The short-sighted-
ness and selfishness of the diplomats at Berlin bore
fruits in the continuous unrest of later years in the
Balkan region — a condition which ultimately precipi-
tated the most terrible of European wars/' 19 "This
artificial division of the Bulgarian nation could scarce-
ly be regarded as possessing elements of perma-
nence." 20 "English jealousy of Russia severed Bul-
garia, which was one of race and sympathy." 21 "Bul-
garia— one and indivisible — according to the treaty of
San Stefano — was divided into three by the treaty of
Berlin." 22

19 — The History of Europe from 1862-1914, by Lieutenant-
Colonel L. H. Holt, U. S. Army, and Captain A. W. Chil-
ton, U. S. Army, professors in U. S< M. A., p.p. 214-215,

20— Enclycopedia Britanica, llth Edition, Vol. IV, p 782.

21— Europe in the XIX Century, by H. P. Judson, p. 275.

22 — Report of the International Commission, p. 40*

At Berlin Bulgaria was crucified, mostly at the
insistance of Beaconsfield, the prime minister of Eng-
land, then the friend of Turkey. The acquisition of
the Turkish island of Cyprus by England, always has
been considered by educated Bulgarians as Judas'
thirty silver pieces for the betrayal and crucifixion of
Bulgaria. Compared with Beaconsfield, Judas has
been considered a gentleman, because after his crime
he had conscience enough to go and hang himself. It
is recorded that the Russo-Polish Princess RadzivilJ
met Beaconsfield at a brilliant reception the night that
the news of the Cyprus convention was made public,
As he wandered among the throng of buzzing, criticiz-
ing, yet admiring generals and diplomats, the princess
asked the prime minister, "What are you thinking
of?" "I am not thinking at all," replied Beaconsfield
magnificently, "I am merely enjoying myself." 23

Since that time Bulgaria has trained and kept a
comparatively large army, and watching for an op-
portune moment to undo the crime committed in Ber-
lin and unite her people under one government. In
1885 Eastern Rumelia united with Bulgaria. The ini-
tiative was on the part of Rumelia and not Bulgaria.
Russian hatred and Servian jealousy led to the Serbo-
Bulgarian war of that year. Servia wanted to pre-
serve the balance on the Balkans and struck treacher-
ously at Bulgaria. The war was unfortunate for the
Servians themselves. In 1912, for the sake of uniting
her people, who composed the great bulk of the popu-
lation in Macedonia and Adrianople Vilayet, Bulgaria
made an alliance with her eternal enemies, Greece and
Servia. The Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913 are too
recent to need any recounting. Bulgaria bore the
brunt of the war agaisnt Turkey. Greece and Servia
engaged themselves, in marching through Macedonia
and occupying the territory inhabited by Bulgarians.
While Bulgaria was yet busy fighting the common en-
emy Servia and Greece formed a secret alliance to
cheat Bulgaria of her rightful claims of Macedonia.
They dug trenches at the outskirts of the occupied ter-

23 — The Roots of the War, by Wm. Stearns Davis, p.. 93.

—20—

ritory and fortified themselves against Bulgaria.
While it could not be settled who struck first, each
Varty blaming the other, it is a settled fact that Ser-
via and Greece had decided to keep the territory which
was inhabited by Bulgarians and already had been
promised Bulgaria by her treaty with Servia. For
oervia her own treaty was a scrap of paper. Greeks
and Servians would fight, but not cede an inch to Bul-
garia. They did fight. Turkey had her chance and
did not pass it by. Rumania, pushed by Russia, joined
Bulgaria's enemies. Exhausted by doing the lion's
share of the fighting against Turkey, Bulgaria was
overpowered, crushed and robbed unmercifully.

Bulgaria put against Turkey 300,000 fighting men
and received 12,347 square miles of territory, with
125,000 population, and lost to Rumania 2,687 square
miles, leaving her a net gain of only 9,660 square miles.

Greece put 150,000 men, gained 18,000 square
miles and added to her population 1,700,000 souls.

Servia — 150,000 soldiers, gained 15,000 square
miles and 1,500,000 inhabitants.

This is the square deal Bulgaria received at the
peace conference of Bucharest on August 10, 1913. She
appealed to Christian and humanitarian Europe for
sympathy and help in this terrible hold-up. The
righteous diplomats of the so-called great powers
turned a deaf ear to her cry of distress. Bulgaria had
no friends. England, Russia and Austria-Hungary had
their plans for the disposal of the "sick man's" coun-
try, it pleased them greatly to see Bulgaria, the
strongest and most progressive of the Balkan nations,
humiliated and dismembered.

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the
crown prince of Austria, and his consort, were assassi-
nated at Sarajevo, Bosnya, by Pan-Servian agents.
Though not a sufficient cause, yet a pretty fair excuse
for Germany to plunge the world into the bloodiest
war in history.

We have seen that Bulgaria had many grievances.
She had an Alsace-Lorraine question with Rumania
for the whole of Dobruja; another with Servia for
Nish, Pirot, Vranya and Northwestern Macedonia;

—21—

still another with Greece in regard to Southwestern
Macedonia; and another with Turkey for the Adrian-
opolis vilayet. All her neighbors had robbed her of
part of her territory and people ; and none of the great
powers a real friend.

The great war had started. Germany broke Bel-
gian neutrality and this drew England into the war.
France had no choice, she was attacked, she had to
fight. The tsar was watching lor an opportunity to
get even with Germany and Austria-Hungary. Turkey
jumped into the fire. Italy had some grievances
against Austria and deserted her former allies. Ger-
many and Austria had no attraction for the Bulgarian
people. Naturally the Bulgarians would have favored
the Entente. But there was Servia on their side, after
Greece, Bulgaria's worst enemy. Her treachery and
breech of contract in regard to Macedonia were too re-
cent to forget. But Bulgaria was ready to torgive
and to forget, if Servia would restore the part of Ma-
cedonia which she had grabbed, and whicn she knew
was inhabited by Bulgarians. But Servia would not
cede an inch.

From an American friend who left Bulgaria in
January, 1918, and who has moved among the higher
circles at Sofia, the writer learns that Bulgaria made
three unsuccessful approaches to join the Entente.
Through the influence of Russia her moderate claims
were rejected. A special Bulgarian commission was
sent to Petrograd. For two months they tried in vain
to obtain an audience with Tsar Nickolas II. The
same commission went to London. There they had a
very cordial reception, but their mission was frus-
trated, thanks to influences from Petrograd.

In August, 1915, Radoslavoff, the prime minister
of Bulgaria, declared: " We will fight but for one end, that
is to extend our frontiers until they embrace the peo-
ple of our own blood, but that end must be assured us
beyond all doubt. If we are asked to fight alone, we
are ready. If we are asked to fight with Greece, Ser-
via and Rumania, in a new Balkan Alliance on the
side of the Allies, we say : 'Give us back our Macedonia,
and we will fight in the way we can serve you best/ '

But official Russia had an eye on Constantinople.
—22—

The Russian press claimed that the Allies had prom-
ised it to her. But Constantinople would be practic-
ally useless without the adjoining territory to make
the Black Sea a Russian lake, and most of that terri-
tory was Bulgaria. Therefore she must be pushed on
tiie side of the Central Powers, so that Russia may
have a good excuse to invade Bulgaria and make of
her a Zadunayskaya Gubernia (Trans-Danubian Prov-
ince) . Russia was successful. She took good care that
Bulgaria was not assured the support of the Entente
in her endeavor to unite her people.

Servia was in great trouble. Bulgaria declared
war against her, but not before ample warning that
unless the grabbed Bulgarian territory was restored
war would follow.

Bulgaria never declared war against England,
France, Russia or Italy. It was these countries that
declared war on Bulgaria. They themselves know why.
Bulgaria did not sink any ships and drown innocent
women and children, nor bomb the civilian population
of any city in the world, and thus provoke their right-
eous indignation.

Bulgaria did not go into the war "against the lib-
erties of mankind." On the contrary she went in for
the liberation of her own people in Macedonia, who
suffered more under Servian and Greek oppression,
than under the bloody regime of Sultan Hamid.

Bulgaria did not go into the war for German au-
tocracy or German Mittel Europa. She went into the
war to liberate and unite her people, whom Christian
Europe had unmercifully crucified for selfish ends.
When Bulgaria entered the war, it was not yet a war
of Democracy agaisnt Autocracy. Russia, the worst
autocracy in the world, was on the side of the Allies.
There is not a more democratic nation in Europe than
Bulgaria. Any intelligent, unprejudiced person can
find this out for himself.

Bulgaria does not cherish any ill-will against her
neighbors. She is not against the national unity of
the Greeks, Rumanians and Servians. All she wants
from them is to restore the territory they grabbed
from her and give her a chance to develop her national
life.

—23—

Bulgaria's enemies have accused her of atrocities
and barbarism. Almost all these accusations emanate
from Servian and Greek sources. We know that they
are extremely biased. We also know that the Greeks
and Servians are not puritanically trained to discrim-
inate between the truth and falsehood. We are told
that prisoners of war were very thin and starved wnen
released from Bulgaria, but are the Bulgarian sol-
diers and her civil population very fat? Tne press
in the allied countries published broadcast the Servian
falsehood that the Bulgarians sold several thousand
Servian women and girls to the lurks. How were they
transported from Servia to Turkey? In what mar-
ket were they sold? What is the matter with tne
consuls of the neutral countries at Sofia and Constan-
tinople? Are they asleep on tne job? Why dm tney
not iniorm their governments in regard to this terri-
ble crime"/ In tne small monchiy publication, "Tne
Balkan Immigrant," lor November, iyiS, Miss Mary
M. Haskell, a returned missionary, says: "Have
readers of the Balkan Immigrant read the tales circu-
lating in the American press which would lead one to
suppose Bulgarians to be a cruel and selfish people,
not fit to exist ? The American missionaries have lived
in the country many years and all through the recent
wars, we have traveled, we have known people of all
parties and nationalities, not only in Bulgaria but in
Macedonia also. At times Bulgarian soldiers have
paid back their foes in their own coin, but thank God,
there have been no systematized cruelties as then-
enemies fabricate. Time will show this, when unpre-
judiced men can make tours of investigation and re-
port to the State Department."

SERVIAN CLAIMS IN MACEDONIA.

Before the treaty of Berlin, the Servian national
leaders, with the exception of a few extreme Chauvin-
ists, did not claim any portion of Macedonia to be Ser-
vian. They knew that the Slavs of that country be-
longed to the Bulgarian group. Their eyes were
turned towards Bosnia and Herzegovina, populated
with their brothers by blood, speech and sympathies;
and also the sanjak of Novi Bazar, adjoining Bosnia

—24—

and Servia. In their national awakening all the Bul-
garians from the Danube to the ^Egean, and from the
Black Sea to the Albanian Mountains acted in unison.
Under Turkish misrule Moesia (Berlin Bulgaria),
Thrace (Berlin Eastern Rumelia and the Adrianople
Vilayet, clear to the walls of Constantinople) and Ma-
cedonia were the home of the United Bulgarian nation.
In 1870 all this territory, including Pirot, Nish, Lesko-
vac and Vranya districts, threw off the spiritual yoke
of the Phariariotes. The Servians were contented to
remain ecclesiastically under the Greek Patriarch.
There was no compulsion on the part of anybody to
induce the people to join the new church under the
Bulgarian Exarch. By their free act the people of Ma-
cedonia declared to the world that they are neither
Greeks nor Servians. It is a well established fact that
ignorant peasants are very reluctant to join a new
church, publicly "anathemized" and excommunicated
by the head of the church — the Patriarch of Constan-
tinople. Yet the people of Macedonia risked going to
a very hot climate in the world to come, rather than
be called Greeks in this sinful world. However, there
were quite a number of communities which remained
with the Phanariotes. The word "Exarchist" meant
invariably a Bulgarian, .while the word "Patriarchist"
meant a Greek, Servian, Vlakh, Albanian or Bulgarian
who submitted to the ecclesiastical authority of the
Phanariotes.

By the treaty of Berlin (Art. XXV) it was de-
creed that "The provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina
shall be occupied and administered by Austria-Hun-
gary. The government of Austria-Hungary not de-
siring to undertake the administration of the Sanjak
of Novi Bazar. * " This cut the Servians off their

lawful sphere of influence and extension towards the
sea, and also of the hope of ever uniting the people of
their own blood. The sanjak of Novi Bazar was not
pre-empted yet, but Austria had already put up the
sign "Verboten." It was in the interests of Austria-
Hungary to divert the attention of Servia in a differ-
ent direction. "After the Berlin congress, Austria-
Hungary entered into closer relations with King Milan
of Servia. He signed the secret treaty of 1881, in

—25—

CZ ] BUtaARlA , GREECE «ND SERVl A «n«e I9f«.
• CONTESTiO RECION BETWEEN BUUCkARlA ai«o SCR.VIA

SHADED, CAINS AFTER THE BALKAN VJKRS , I9IO.-ISI3

THE BALKANS BEFORE AND AFTER THE BALKAN WARS.

2. Bulgaria went into the alliance to free and unite her people in Mace-
donia and Thrace. Notice how her treacherous allies deprived her of all
Macedonia. Notice also the black spot, the southern borders of which the
Servians were not to cross in their territorial claims. The population of this
region is solidly Bulgar. The most cruel Servian attrocities occurred there.

which (Art. 7) Austria-Hungary formally declared
that she 'would not oppose, would even support Servia
against other powers in the event of the latter' s find-
ing a way of extending its southern boundary, excep-
tion being made in the case of the sanjak of Novi Ba-
zar.' In 1889, when this treaty was renewed, Austria-
Hungary promised in even clearer terms 'to aid in the
extension of Servia in the direction of the Vardar val-
ley/ Thus at the very moment when Austria-Hungary
was depriving Servia of any possibility of westward ex-
tension, by joining the section of the Servian population
inhabiting Bosnia and Herzegovina to herself, Austrian
diplomacy was holding out by way of compensation,
the hope of an extension toward the South, in those
territories whose population had, up to 1860-1870, been
universally recognized as Bulgarian, even by the Serv-
ians, j (
"At this period the network of Servian schools spread
specially fast, thanks to the aid of the Turks, who here
as elsewhere followed their habitual policy of playing
off the Servian and Greek minorities against the strong-
er and more dangerous majority of the Bulgarian ex-
archists." 24

In 1896-1897 there were in Macedonia 843 Bulga-
rian schools, against 77 Servian schools, 1,306 Bulgarian
teachers (Servian 118) ; 31,719 scholars in the Bulga-
rian schools (2,873 in the Servian) ; there were also
14,713 children in Bulgarian kindergartens.

"These figures show that at the close of the nine-
teenth century the overwhelming majority of the Slav
population of Macedonia was sending its children to the
exarchist Bulgarian schools." 25

Before the Balkan wars the people of free Bulgaria
would have rather had Macedonia autonomous as a
whole under Turkish suzerainty than independent on
condition of partition between Bulgaria, Servia and
Greece. But the government secretly from the people
signed a treaty of partition with Servia on March 13,
1912. A highly detailed map of the contested territory
was attached to the treaty. Servia agreed not to claim
any territory beyond the Southern boundary of this

24, 25 — Report of the International Commission, p.p. 26, 27.

—27—

contested region. The Bulgarians were not to claim any-
thing beyond its northern limit. The Tsar of Russia
was to arbitrate the exact place of the border between
Bulgaria and Servia within the limits of the contested
territory. This region is roughly shown by the black
patch on our map. 26 However, Servia treated her
treaty with Bulgaria in German fashion, as a mere t
scrap of paper. While Bulgaria was still busy fighting '
the common foe, her treacherous ally, Servia, was en-
gaged in the wholesale Servianizing of the popula-
tion beyond the line which she contracted not to cross
in her claims. The clergy, teachers and prominent citi-
zens were given the choice between declaring them-
selves as Servians, or undergo the most barbarous
treatment. The people were ordered to change the Bul-
garian ending off in their names to the Servian itch;
for example Ivanoff to Ivanitch. The writer will intro-
duce a few quotations from the report of the Interna-
tional Commission which illustrate the oppressive meas-
ures of Servia in her endeavor to Servianize the Bulga-
rians of Macedonia.

The Bulgarian bishop Neophite of Veles, said to his
persecutor, the Servian Sub-Prefect: You know "What
the Servian priests and school masters* are doing in the
villages. They are visiting the Bulgarian villages with
soldiers and forcing the people to write themselves
down as Servians, drive out their Bugarian priests and
ask to have a Servian priest given them. Those who
refuse to proclaim themselves Servians are beaten and
tortured." 27

The International commission is in possession of a
copy of the Servian formula of renunciation of Bulga-
rian nationality. This is the formula which the priests
and their flocks had to address to Mr. Vincentius, the
Servian Metropolitan of Uskub:

I and the flock confided to my charge by God were
formerly Servian, but the terrors with which the Bul-
garian comitajis representing the revolutionary orga-

26 — An exact copy of the map of the contested territory is found
on page 45 of the Report of the International Commission.
"Imported from Servia.
27 — Report International Commission, p.p. 53, 54.

—28—

nization inspired us, and the violence they used to-
ward us, compelled us and our fathers before us to turn
from the patriarchate to the exarchate, thus making
Bulgarians of the pure Servians we were. Thus we
called ourselves Bulgars under fear of death until the
arrival of our Servian army, until the moment of our
liberation from the Turks. Now that we are no longer
in fear of bombs, stones and bullets, we beg your Holi-
ness, on our own behalf and on behalf of our flocks,
to deign to restore us to our Holy Church of Uskub, to
restore us to the faith which we have for a time be-
trayed through fear of death. Kissing your holy right
hand, we ask you to pray to God to pardon our sin.
Signed at Sopot, March 28, 1913.

This formula was sent, in Servia, by a Servian of-
ficial, Daniel Tsakits, secretary of the Malinska commu-
nity at Koumanovo, to the Bulgarian priest Nikolas
Ivanov, with the following letter:

Father Nikolas, thou shalt sign this letter that I
send thee, and after thee all the villagers of Sopot are
to sign, likewise the Trstenichani, the Piestchani, the
Stanevchani, and Alakintchani, who are thy parision-
ers. The whole to be ready by Saturday. Greeting
from Daniel Tsakits, 27, III, 1913, Malino.

"Take care that those who sign do not make off."

Similar tactics were resorted to at Monastir and
other places. This was simply ' 'adding insult to in-
jury."

After the Second Balkan war, whic$i was very un-
fortunate for the Bulgarian nation, Macedonia was di-
vided between Greece and Servia, not upon the princi-
ple of nationality, but upon the prniciple of robbers
dividing up their booty. The martyrdom of Macedonia
began. The country was put under a special law. On
October 4, 1913, the Servian government issued a de-
cree on "public security" in the recently acquired ter-
ritories, which amounted to the establishment of a mili-
tary dictatorship, and called forth cries of horror in
the foreign press.28 The full text of this document is
given in the Report of the International Commission,

28 — Report of the International Commission, p. 160.

—29—

p.p 160-162, and in Prof. Monroe's book, "Bulgaria and
Her People," p.p. 384-391.

The treatment of the people in Servian Macedonia*
aroused the indignation even of the Servian Socialist
paper, Radnitchke Novine. "If the liberation of these
territories is a fact, why then, is this exceptional re-
gime established there ? If the inhabitants are Servians
why are they not made the equals of all the Servians;
why is the constitutional rule not put in operation ac-
cording to which 'All Servians are equal before the
law'? If the object of the wars was unification, why
is not this unification effectively recognized, and
why are these exceptional ordinances created, such
as can only be imposed upon conquered countries by
conquerors? Moreover, our constitution does not ad-
mit of rules of this nature!" 29

"As a matter of fact, if one did not know what
Macedonia is, one might guess it from, the publication
of these ordinances. Clearly Macedonia was not 'Old
Seryia' unified, since the population is treated as 'reb-
els in a perpetual state of revolt.' " 30

The regime of Servian anarchy is summed up in
a letter published in the "Manchester Guardian."
The writer is a man of high character and a minister
of religion — it is safer not to indicate his church. He
is a native of the country, but has had a European
education, and is not 'himself a member of the perse-
cuted Bulgarian community:

"The situation grows more and more unbeara-
ble for the Bulgarians — a perfect hell. I had oppor-
tunities of talking with peasants from the interior.
What they tell us makes one shudder. Every group
of four or five villages has an official placed over it
who, with six or seven underlings, men of disreputa-
ble antecedents, carries out perquisitions, and on the
pretext of searching for arms steals everything that
is worth taking. They indulge in flogging and rob-
bery and violate many of the women and girls; Tri-

* — The term\ Servian Macedonia is just as congruent as German

Belgium.

29 — Report of the International Commission, p. 162.
30 — Report International Commission, p. 162.

—30—

butes under the form of military contributions are ar-
bitrarily imposed. One village of 110 families had
already been fined 6,000 dinars (£T.240) and now it
has to pay another 2,000 (£T.80.) The priest of the vil-
lage, to avoid being sent into exile, has had to pay a
ransom of £T.50. Poor emigrants returning from
America have had to pay from ten to twenty napo-
leons for permission to go to their homes. The offi-
cials and officers carry out wholesale robberies
through the customs and the army contracts. The
police is all powerful, especially the secret service.
Bands of; Servian terrorists (comitadjis) recruited
by the government, swarm all over the country. They
go from village to village, and woe to anyone who
dares to refuse them anything. These bands have
a free hand to do as they please, in order to Serbize
the population. Shepherds are forbidden to drive
their flocks to pasture lest (such is the excuse) they
should supply the Bulgarian bands with food. In a
word, it is an absolute anarchy. We shall soon have
a famine, for the Serbs have taken everything, and
under present conditions no one can earn a living.
Everyone would like to emigrate, but it is impossi-
ble to get permission even to visit a neighboring vil-
lage." 31

Does this look like liberation? Does it show that
the Macedonians are Servians?

THE GREEK CLAIMS IN MACEDONIA.

Let us examine some statistics:

The Bulgarians claim that there are in Macedo-
nia 1,181,336 Bulgarians, 228,702 Greeks, and 700
Servians.

The Greeks claim 652,795 Greeks, 332,162 Bul-
garians and no Servians.

The Servians affirm that Macedonia is inhabited
by 2,048,320 Servians, 201,140 Greeks, and 57,600
Bulgarians.

The International commission from whose report
we take the above figures, says: "The Bulgarian
statistics alone take into acount the national con-

31 — Report International Commission, p. 170.

—31—

sciousness of the people themselves. The Servian
calculations are generally based on the results of the
study of dialects and on the identity of customs; they
are therefore largely theoretic and abstract in char-
acter. The Greek calculations are even more artifi-
cial, since their ethnic standard is the influence ex-
ercised by Greek civilization on the urban popula-
tion, and even the recollections and traces of classi-
cal antiquity." 32

Mr. Brancoff's statistics of Macedonia are the
only ones that go into details. He says that Macedo-
nia has 190,000 Greeks, against 1,172,132 Bulgars, not
including the Pomaks (Mohammedanized Bulgar-
ians). "The Greek population of Macedonia is con-
fined to the southern regions, yet even here in some dis-
tricts the Bulgars are in the majority. Thus the
Kaza of Lerin (Fiorina) has 43,488 Bulgars and 110
Greeks; in the Kaza of Ochrid, with 44,432 Bulgars,
there are 3,084 Vlakhs, but no Greeks whatever; the
Kaza of Vodena has several hundred Gypsies along-
side its 31,136 Bulgars, but no Greeks. And, if in
the town of Kastoria, the 4,000 Greeks outnumber
the Bulgars ten to one, the entire village population
is Bulgar, and the Kaza of Kastoria has 57,400 Bul-
gars against 11,075 Greeks. The city of Salonica
with a total population of 130,000, has 20,000 Greeks
and 8,000 Bulgars. But while in the city of Salonica
the Greeks comprising one-sixth of the population,
outnumber the Bulgars more than two to one, in the
Kaza of Salonica, outside the city, the Bulgars num-
ber 25,000 and the Greeks 17,265.

"East of Salonica the ^gean coast is more Greek
than Bulgar in its urban population; but, again, while
in the town of Serres there are 2,488 Bulgars against
5105 Greeks, in the Kaza of Serres there are 47,560
Bulgars, against 28,543 Greeks and in the whole san-
jak of Serres 259,186 Bulgars to 50,298 Greeks. In-
deed, the town of Serres is a Hellenized island in a
Bulgarian sea. The town, of Drama also has 432 Bul-
gars, 700 Greeks, and 1,500 Vlakhs but the Kaza
of Drama numbers 11,016 Bulgars, 3,890 Greeks and

32 — Report International Commission, p.p. 28, 30.

—32—

1,914 Vlakhs. That is to say, even in those districts
of Macedonia where Greeks are to be found at all, —
North of Thessaly and along the ^gean coast — they
are mainly town merchants or else nomadic fisher-
folk, while the native population, tilling the soil and
christening village and mountain, and river and for-
est, is Bulgar.

4 'Of course only along the ^Egean coast do the
Greeks exceed the Bulgars in the towns. The Bul-
gar town population all over Macedonia is 214,260,
against 52,080 Greeks, of whom 20,000 are in Salon-
ica." 33

How is it that the Greeks are almost invariably
found in the towns, as islands surrounded by a sea
of Bulgarians? Would not the facts given in the sec-
tion "Five Centuries of a Double Yoke," furnish us
with the clue that these Greeks are nothing else but
Hellenized Bulgarians? Such results from five hun-
dred years of the most unscrupulous Greek propa-
ganda, supported by the political regime of the un-
speakable Turk, are only a little more than complete
failure. The Bulgarian speaking Patriarchists form
the connecting link in the evolution of the Bulgar into
the Macedonian Greek. However, the Bulgarians are
very generous. They do not wish to claim these rene-
gade Bulgarians. They are more than willing to
credit the Greek claims with these Hellenized Bul-
gars. The Bulgarians claim Macedonia on the basis
of an overwhelming majority of self-conscious
and self-confessed Bulgars.

In 1869-70, about eight years before the libera-
tion of Bulgaria, Luben Karaveloff, a prominent Bul-
garian man of letters wrote: "The Greeks show no
interest in knowing what kind of people live in such
a country as Macedonia. It is true that they say that
the country formerly belonged to Greeks, and there-
fore ought to belong to them again. * * But we
are in the Nineteenth century and historical and cano-
nical rights have lost all significance. Every people
like every individual ought to be free, and every na-

33 — Journal of Race Development, January, 1918, Prof. R. A.
TsanofF s paper on "Bulgaria's Case," p. 302.

tion has the right to live for itself. Thrace and Ma-
cedonia ought then to be Bulgarian since the people
who live there are Bulgarians."

In spite of the very strong opposition of the
Greek hierarchy, assisted by corrupt Turkish officials,
the population of Macedonia fought for religious
freedom from the ecclesiastical yoke of the Phanar-
iotes, and when victory came in 1870, they joined the
Bulgarian national church. Houses of worship were
built, national schools sprang up even in the smallest
villages. The teachers, native Macedonians, were not
paid by a foreign propaganda organization, as was
the case with the Greek, and after with the Servian
schools, but by the people themselves. There were
no comitadjis to terrorize the people to become Bul-
garians. On the contrary, there were Greek intrig-
uers and corrupt Turkish officials to scare them to
remain Pseudo-Greeks. Almost all Greek dioceses
lost their Bulgarian flocks. Though Bulgarian bish-
ops were appointed to care for the new national
church, the Greek Patriarch continued to appoint
Greek bishops, notwithstanding the fact that the
Greek constituency would not have justified even the
appointment of a priest. If the political movement
and afterwards the liberation of Bulgaria were de-
layed at least twenty years, the Greeks would have
lost, perhaps, two-thirds of those whom
they claim as Greeks in Macedonia. More than half
of the so-called Greeks use the Bulgarian language as
their mother tongue. The Phanariotes have coined
out the term, "Bulgarop'hone Greeks" (Bulgarian-
speaking Greeks), to designate the Bulgarians still
adhering to the Greek Patriarchate. The writer was
born in Thrace and spent seven years in Macedonia
in the capacity of a Congregational home missionary.
He has never met a genuine Greek or any other for-
eigner who could speak Bulgarian without being de-
tected right away that he is a foreigner. But the
Patriarchist Bulgarians speak the language just as
naturally as their Exarchist brethren. But like the
Pomaks (Mohammedan Bulgars) these Grecomans
(Bulgaro-Greeks) are more bigoted than the genuine
Greeks. They hate their true brethren, the Bulga-

—34—

rians. These Grecomans furnished the Turkish gov-
ernment with spies against the Internal Macedonian
Revolutionary Organization.

There was a Supreme Macedono-Adrianople
Committee at Sofia, Bulgaria. Though its presi-
dents were Macedonians, yet apparently this organi-
zation was in the hands of Official Bulgaria, and very
often served the dynastic ends of the king. The Su-
preme Committee was far from satisfying the aims
and ideals of the Macedonian population. Therefore,
the necessity of a new organization in the midst of
the people whose interests it was to serve. The Cen-
tral Macedonian Committee was organized. Gotze
Delcheif of Kukush, a few miles north of Salonica,
was the soul of the movement. His official position
was a school master, but his real work was to awaken
and organize the population for an armed revolt
against the Turkish misrule. His ideal was Macedo-
nia for the Macedonians. He was a Socialist, and even
constitutional kings were not much to his liking. The
writer happened to be in Macedonia at the very con-
ception of this organization. Gotze Delcheff was the
principal of the national school of our town. The writ-
er disagreeing with Delcheff as to methods of work, a
pretty serious quarrel followed. Asi a result the writ-
er was deprived of the honor of being one of the char-
ter members of the Central Macedonian Committee.
But later they embraced one another with a brotherly
kiss, customary to the revolutionists. Delcheff' s real
mission was given publicity by a young man in a
spree of drunkenness. He had to disappear, and from
that time on canvassed the country secretly from one
end to the other with an armed squad (his body-
guard), and gave his whole time to the work of orga-
nizing and directing.

Official Greece and Servia opposed this movement
because they considered it an enemy to their propa-
ganda. While the organization was constantly grow-
ing many Macedonians, betrayed by Grecomans or
other Turkish spies, took to the mountains, forming
into armed bands of thirty or forty and waging guei
ilia war on the Turkish army. More than 300,000
Turkish troops were constantly kept on the go chasing

the bands. The aim was to bankrupt Turkey econom-
ically. The bands also assisted in smuggling fire-
arms and ammunitions from across the borders.

In 1897 Greece, deceiving herself, that the Ma-
cedonians will assist her by a revolt, provoked Tur-
key to war. "On the 9th and 10th of April Greek
irregulars crossed the frontier either with a view to
t provoke hostilities or in the hope of fomenting a ris-
'ing in Macedonia.

« * * * Tne Turkish forces had now drawn to-
gether and the Greeks were threatened on both
flanks. In the evening (April 23) a general retreat
was ordered, and the loose discipline of the Greek
army was at once manifested. Rumors of disaster
spread among the Greek ranks, and wild panic sup-
ervened. * * : The general debacle could not, how-
ever, be arrested, and in great disorder the mass of
the Greek army fled southwards to Pharsala. There
was no pursuit and the Turkish comander-in-chief did
not reach Larisa till the 27th. Thus ended the first
phase of the war, in which the Greeks showed tenac-
ity of defence, which proved fruitless by reason of
initially bad strategic dispositions entailing far too
great dispersion, and also because there was no plan
of action beyond a general desire to avoid risking a
defeat which might prevent the expected risings in
Macedonia and elsewhere. * * *

: The Greek forces being much demoral-
ized, the intervention of the tsar was invoked by tele-
graph; and the latter sent a personal appeal to the
sultan, who directed a suspension of hostilities. On
the 20th (May) an armistice was arranged.

"•*..** Under the terms of the treaty of peace,
signed on the 20th of September, and arranged by
the European powers, Turkey obtained an indem-
nity of L. T. 4,000,000, and a ratification of the Thes-
salian frontier, carrying with it some strategic ad-
vantage. History records few more unjustifiable
wars than that which Greece gratuitously pro-
voked." 34

The Mcedonian organization was pretty well pre-

34— Encyclopedia Britanica, llth Edition, Vol. XII, p. 424.

—36—

pared and could be of material assistance to the
Greeks in harassing the Turkish lines of communica-
tion and causing* a general disturbance in the country
back of the fighting line. However, much as they
hated the Turks, the population of Macedonia hated
the Greeks more. The physical wrongs of the Turks
were as nothing compared with the spiritual and in-
tellectual crimes of the Greeks. ' The organization
not only did not proclaim a revolt, but recalled the
usual bands from the mountains, so that Turkey might
have a free hand. Not even a Macedonian dog
wagged its tail in assistance of the much-hated
Greek. Thus the people of Macedonia once more let
the Greeks and the world know that they are not
Greeks.

Servia and Greece tried to win territory from
Turkey, but both failed completely. Without the as-
sistance of Bulgaria they could not gain an inch.
They approached Bulgaria several times for a Bal-
kan Alliance, and in 1912 succeeded in their plans.
Bulgaria believed that her sworn enemies had come
to their senses. The Balkan wars followed with the
well known results. If Bulgaria knew of the treach-
ery of her false allies, and that Macedonia would
change a bad master for two worse ones, she would
have spurned even the idea of alliance with Servia
and Greece.

Before the Second Balkan war the Greeks were
fully convinced that they cannot Hellenize the popu-
lation of Macedonia, therefore they decided on the
next best — extermination.

The International Commission had a fair oppor-
tunity to collect information and study the facts.
Therefore, we will let these impartial and honest
judges speak: 'The facts which emerge clearly from
our depositions are (1) that the village submitted
from the first; (2) that it was sacked and burned;
(3) that the Greek troops gave themselves up openly
to a debauch of lust; (4) that many of the peasants
were killed wantonly and without provocation." 35
"The great mass of evidence goes to show that

35 — Report International Commission, p. 102.

—37—

there was nothing singular in the cases which the
commission itself investigated. In one instance a
number of Europeans witnessed the brutal conduct
of a detachment of Greek regulars under three offi-
cers. Fifteen wounded Bulgarian soldiers took re-
fuge in the Catholic convent of Paliorti, near Ghev-
gheli; and were nursed by the sisters. Father Al-
ioati reported this fact to the Greek commandant,
whereupon a detachment was sent to search the con-
vent for a certain Bulgarian voyevoda (chief of
bands) named Arghyr, who was not there. In the
course of the search a Bulgarian Catholic priest, Fa-
ther Trepche, and the Armenian doctor 01 the con-
vent were severely flogged in the presence of the
Greek officers. A Greek soldier attempted to violate
a nun, and during the search a sum of L. T. 300 was
stolen. Five Bulgarian women and a young girl were
put to the torture, and a large number of peasants
carried off to prison for no good reason. The officer
in command threatened to kill Father Alloati on the
spot and to burn down the convent. If such things
could be done to Europeans in a building under the
protection of the French flag, it is not difficult to be-
lieve that the Bulgarian peasants fared incompara-
bly worse." 36

"The commission regrets that the attitude of the
Greek government towards its work has prevented it
from obtaining any official answer to the charges
which emerge from this evidence. The broad fact
that the whole of this Bulgarian region, for a dis-
tance of about one hundred miles, was devastated and
nearly every village burned, admits no denial. Nor
do we think that military necessity could be pleaded
with any plausibility.* * * The Greeks did not wait
for any provocation. * * * but everywhere burned
the villages, step by step with their advance. The
slaughter of peasant men could be defended only if
they had been in the act of resistance with arms in
their hands. No such explanation will fit the cases
on which we have particularly laid stress, nor have
any of the war correspondents who followed the

36 — Report International Commission, p. 103.

—38—

Greek army reported conflicts along the main line of
the Greek march with armed villagers. The violation
of women admits of no excuse; it can only be de-
nied." 37

"Denial unfortunately is impossible. No verdict
which could be based on the evidence collected by the
commission could be more severe than that which
Greek soldiers have pronounced upon themselves. It
happened that on the eve of the armistice (July 27)
the Bulgarians captured the baggage of the Nine-
teenth Greek infantry regiment at Dobrinishte (Raz-
log.) It included its post bags, together with the
file of its telegraphic orders, and some of its ac-
counts. We were permitted to examine these docu-
ments at our leisure in the Foreign Office at Sofia.
* * * We studied with particular care a series of
twenty-five letters, which contained definite avowals
by these Greek soldiers of the brutalities which they
had practiced. Two members of the commission
have some knowledge of modern Greek. We satisfied
ourselves (1) that the letters (mostly illiterate and
ill- written) had been carefully deciphered and hon-
estly translated; (2) that the interesting portions of
the letters were in the same handwriting as the ad-
dresses on the envelopes (which bore the official
stamp) and the portions which related only personal
news; (3) that no tampering with the manuscripts
had been practiced. * * * " 38

"The letters require no commentary. Some of the
writers boast of the cruelties practiced by the Greek
army. Others deplore them. * * * Most of the let-
ters dwell on the slaughter of non-combatants, in-
cluding women and children. These few extracts,
each from a separate letter, may suffice to convey their
general tenor:

By order of the King we are setting fire to all
the Bulgarian villages, because the Bulgarians burned
the beautiful town of Serres, Nigrita, and several
Greek villages. We have shown ourselves far more
cruel than the Bulgarians. * * *

37 — Report International Commission, p.p. 103, 104.
38 — Report International Commission, p. 104.

—39—

Here we are burning the villages and killing the
Bulgarians, both women and children.? * *

We took only a few (prisoners), and these we
killed, for such are the orders we have received.

We have to burn the villages — such is the order-
slaughter the young people and spare only the old
people and the children. *

What is done to the Bulgarians is indescribable;
also to the Bulgarian peasants. It was a butchery.
There is not a Bulgarian town or village but is burned.

We massacre all the Bulgarians who fall into
our hands, and burn the villages.

Of the 1,200 prisoners we took at Nigrita, only
forty-one remain in the prisons, and everywhere
we have been we have not left a single root of this
race.

We picked out their eyes (five Bulgarian prison-
ers) while they were still alive.

The Greek army sets fire to all the villages
where are Bulgarians and massacre all it meets.* * *
God knows where this will end.

'These letters relieve us of the task of summing
up evidence. From Kukush to the Bulgarian frontier
the Greek army devastated the villages, violated the
women, and slaughtered the non-combatant men. The
order to carry out reprisals was evidently obeyed. We
repeat, however, that these reprisals began before
the Bulgarian provocation. * * * Systematically and
in cold blood the Greeks burned one hundred and
sixty Bulgarian villages and destroyed at least 16,000
Bulgarian homes. * * *" 39

Before we close this chapter we will give the tes-
timony of Mr. H. M. Wallis, a member of the Society
of Friends of England, who has made a special study
of the region devastated by the Greeks during the
Second Balkan war. His article "The Devastation of
Macedonia," was published in the Quarterly Review,
April, 1914. Volume 220, p.p. 506-523. "The advance
of the Greek army has been held up to the admiration
of military men as a miracle of speed. Its slowness is
the fact which calls for explanation; two furlongs
per hour is no Marathon race, but it is all King Cpn-
stantine was able to exact from a force outnumbering
its opponents by four or five to one. Why? Because

39 — Report International Commission, p.p. 105, 106.

his gallant boys had something else to do. * * * *
What went on behind the line of Greek advance no
pen may tell. The maltreatment of Bulgarian women
seems to have been a specialty of these dastards, who
during their month of 'fighting' could never, as Gen-
eral Ivanoff assures me, be got to charge with the
bayonet."

Professor Monroe says: "The majority of the
inhabitants of Macedonia are Bulgarians." Then he
asks: "Where are these Macedonian Bulgars today?"
Mr. Wallis answers they have disappeared. "So far
as human agency can effect it, they have been oblit-
erated. By shot, shell, and bayonet, by torture and
fire, by proscription, imprisonment, and forcible ex-
ile the whole non-Greek element has been destroyed
or chased out. * * *'

"Whither? Into Bulgaria. * * I believe that
of approximately 130,000 refugees, who are now King
Ferdinand's guests, and are fed by his bounty and
the bounty of the Bulgarians, there are about 100,-
000 whose homes were in what is now New Greece."

"King Constantine had a singular opportunity of
proving to Europe the capacity, civilization and mag-
nanimity of himself and his people. He preferred to
play the role of Tamerlane; he has made a desert and
calls it 'Greece/'

"After five centuries of Turkish rule the Bul-
gars of Macedonia still retained their language, cus-
toms and nationality. The brutal methods of dena-
tionalization employed by the Greeks and Servians
merit the severe condemnation of all civilized na-
tions." 40 ^<

WHAT DOES BULGARIA EXPECT FROM THE
PEACE CONFERENCE?

In his speech opening the Fourth Liberty Loan
President Wilson expressed the following sentiments:
"We are fighting for a reorganization of the world
upon the basis of justice and fair dealing. We are
fighting against the medieval and dynastic idea that
might is the only force that regulates the activities of

40— Bulgaria and Her People, by Will S. Monroe, p.p. 394, 395.

— 41—

THE BALKAN STATES AS THEY SHOULD BE.

3. When Rumania, Greece and Servia claim the right to unite their own
people is it unjust that Bulgaria should be given overwhelmingly Bulgar Mace-
donia and solidly Bulgar Dobrudja? Certainly our boys did not sacrifice their
lives for revenge and injustice. We should not punish Bulgaria by leaving
innocent and martyred Macedonia under Greek and Servian oppression.

—42—

nations. * * * We propose to establish the princi-
ples of the Declaration of Independence. No nation
is to conquer and destroy another nation simply be-
cause it has the power to do so. * ' In this same
speech Mr. Wilson invites leaders of other nations to
add their views to his own. Mr. Balfour, who voices
the public opinion of England as eloquently as Mr.
Wilson voices that of the United States, has promptly
accepted that invitation.

In a recent speech he says: "The other
essential preliminary to the establishment of a
League of Nations is the definite reorganization of
the world on the basis of freedom of peoples and of
national rights. * * * " Mr. Balfour demands that
the Polish people be made a nation once more; that
Italians outside of Italy be restored to the Italian
nation, that the 3,000,000 Greeks who are not nation-
ally a part of Greece shall resume their membership
in the Greek state, that all the Serbs outside of Serbia
shall be brought under the national banner, that Al-
sace-Lorraine be restored to France, and all like in-
justices and crimes committed in the past shall be un-
done." 41

Is the question of Macedonia intentionally
omitted, or is it included in the expression "all like
injustices and crimes committed in the past shall be
undone?" Will the Peace Conference undo the un-
pardonable crimes against the Bulgarian nation com-
mitted at Berlin in 1878, and at Bucharest in 1913 ?
Is the square deal and granting of favors to be only
for the small nations which by mere accident hap-
pened to be on the side of the Entente, or is the prin-
ciple to be applied all around? If so, Bulgaria expects:

1. When the Peace Conference gives to Rumania
Bessarabia and Transylvania with their a little over 50
per cent of Rumanians, and, perhaps, Bukowina, with
only 35 per cent Rumanians and 40 per cent of Ru-
thenians (Ukrainians), that it should require Ruma-
nia to hand over to Bulgaria the whole of Dobruja,
which is almost 100 per cent Bulgarian.

41— "The Wilson-Balfour Basis of Peace." In the World's
Work, November, 1918, p. 10.

2. When Servia is given the chance to unite her
people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and perhaps form
a Jugo-Slav Federation with her kinsfolk in Monte-
negro, Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia, Carniola,
Istrya and Goritz, that she should be asked to return
purely Bulgarian Macedonia, which she unjustly
grabbed from Bulgaria.

3. When Greece is given possession of all the is-
lands of the Mgean. and the western coast of Asia
Minor inhabited by her own people, that she should
be invited to step out of Macedonia 75 per cent of
whose Christian population is confessedly Bulgarian,
and the remainder Hellenized Bulgars. By this Chris-
tian Europe will give a chance to the over 100,000
exiled Macedonian people, the remnant from the
Greek slaughter, to return to their desolate homes
and begin life anew.

4. When the Turk is excused to leave Europe,
for he has proved long ago his unfitness to be an
European, Bulgaria should be allowed to annex her
people, who form the bulk of the inhabitants of
Thrace, even to the Tchataldja lines.

Bulgaria expects the support of France, because
she knows from experience what it means to be un-
justly dismembered. She has one Alsace-Lorraine.
Bulgaria has many.

Bulgaria expects the support of England, be-
cause now or never is the time for Great Britain to
correct the great wrong she committed toward Bul-
garia and Macedonia through her prime minister,
Beaconsfield, in 1878. As one of the Bulgarian poets
of the present generation has said:

Undo that you did at Berlin,

Come and help us!
Once do justice pay your debt,
Beaconsfield we shall forget,
God, too, might forgive you yet, —

Come, 0 come, and help us.

From America Bulgaria cannot expect anything
else but justice. America, through her missionaries,

Robert College, and other American institutions of
learning has .done more than all other agencies put
together, to start Bulgaria in the path of righteous-
ness and real democracy.

Suffering and bleeding Macedonia cries to America:

**
Land of Washington and Lincoln,

Come and help us !
Land of brave men, true and free,
Land and home of liberty,
Shall we vainly hope in thee ? —

Come, O come and help us ! 42

B B B

TO NEW BULGARIA.

Bulgaria, beloved country mine,
My jealous hopes and dreams do prophesy
Thy weal and blessing, coming, by and by.
A sceptre vastly stretched on land and brine,
The mighty sway of Rome may ne'er be thine;
But knowledge, freedom, virtue, truth — all lie
Within thy reach, as God is God on high ;
These make a people great, O Mother mine!

Be lover thou of these! And ever aim
To be among the nations of the earth
A people free, and eminent for worth ; ;
That good men may, observing thy estate,
In admiration glad with truth exclaim,
"Behold a people small, yet truly great!"
Boston, Mass., 1893. — S. K. VATRALSKY.

42 — Today's Macedonian Cry, by Stoyan K. Vatralsky.,

RESOLUTION

Of the Macedono-Bulgarian Convention, held at Chi-
cago, EL, On December 1-6, 1918, for the Freedom
of Macedonia and the Unity of the Bulgarian
People.

Honorable Woodrow Wilson,

President of the United States of America,

Paris, France.

Mr. President:

We, the undersigned, authorized by the two hun-
dred and one delegates, representing 40,000 Bulgarians
from Macedonia, now residing in various places
throughout the United States of America, and assem-
bled in convention in Chicago, Illinois, December 1st-
5th, 1918, for the purpose of exchanging views about
the future fate of our land and people, consider it, be-
fore all, our sacred duty to express our profound grati-
tude to and heart-felt thanks toward the great Ameri-
can people for the kind hospitality shown us from the
day of our arrival in this country — an asylum for the
oppressed.

Furthermore, we would wish to lay emphasis up-
on the invaluable services of the American pioneers and
missionaries and the splendid influence of their insti-
tutions among our people during the past seventy
years.

We take the liberty to submit for the earnest con-
sideration of the President of the United States of
America, the following facts:

First: We were born, raised and brought up in
the various towns and villages of Macedonia, such as
Scopie (Uskub), Tetova, Debr, Ochrida, Kostur (Kas-
toria), Lerin, Vodena, Bitolia (Monastir), Prilep,
Veles, Ghevgeli, Dorian, Kukush, Radovish, Shtip, Ma-
leshevp, Kotchane, Kratovo, Koumanovo, Palanka, De-
mir-Hissar, Seres, Drama, Salonika, Ressen, Tikvesch,
Enidje-Vardar and their respective districts, all of
which are at present under Greek and Servian yoke.
Driven out of our homes by the terrible Turkish mis-
rule and oppression, we found refuge in America, the
land of Liberty, where we enjoy freedom and justice.
Yet, we cannot forget the land of our fathers where

we have left our wives and children and our homes —
this being the most sacred duty of every man.

Second: We, who for more than half a century
had struggled against the Turks and fought for liberty
lived to see our ideals frustrated by the terms of that
ignominious treaty of Bucharest (1913), against the
injustice of which immediately raised a voice of pro-
test from America. This treaty as an act of violence
brought new painful complications in the Balkans and
when the great war broke out threw Bulgaria on the
side of Germany against Servia, a circumstance that
benefited, for the time being, Germany alone.

Third: We are a part of that people whose fath-
ers and forefathers struggled against the yoke of the
Greek church and long before the commonwealth of
Bulgaria was brought into existence were the founders
and builders of our church organization — the Bulgari-
an Exarchate in Constantinople.

Fourth: We, the Macedonian Bulgarians, living
in the United States of America form only a small part
of 1,200,000 Bulgarians in Macedonia, who speak noth-
ing but Bulgarian, BUT WE WISH IT TO BE KNOWN
THAT OUR WILL IS EXPRESSED HEREIN FREE
OF ANY FOREIGN INFLUENCE AND PRESSURE
WHATSOEVER.

Fifth: We shall say nothing herein whatever
relative to the opinions of scientists, travelers and eth-
nographers who have ascertained the Bulgarian na-
tionality of the Slavic population of Macedonia, but we
take the liberty to declare that it would be absolutely
unjust to leave us under Servian and Greek yoke now
after the principle of SELF-DETERMINATION AND
NATIONAL UNITY has been so solemnly proclaimed.

In view of all the above facts the Convention
adopted the following

RESOLUTION:

In the name of the great principles which the
President of the United States of America has pro-
claimed and has made the basis of his world policies
the Convention most respectfully begs the President
of the United States of America to kindly exercise his

—47—

best efforts at the Peace Conference so that our na-
tive land, Macedonia, be included within the future
boundaries of our common fatherland — Bulgaria, and
prevent from accomplishing a great injustice those
who will again try to break up our land and subject us
to foreign domination.

The Convention places explicit confidence in
President Wilson and trusts that he will gladly defend
a just cause, it being one of his sacred purposes to se-
cure freedom for every nation and thus insure a safe
and lasting peace for the future generations.

The Convention sincerely believes that the Presi-
dent of the United States of America will take a firm
stand in behalf of our freedom and national unity and
wishes him success in his great mission.

Respectfully submitted,

REV. DAVID NACKOFF,

President of the Convention.
ALEX. BELIEFF,

Secretary of the Convention.

D^ ?* 355

LAST

DATE

OVERDUE.

YC '46968.

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